


Someone to Lead an Army With

by serpentunder_t



Category: Revolution (TV)
Genre: Birthday Party, F/M, Smoking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-26
Updated: 2015-07-26
Packaged: 2018-04-11 06:13:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,268
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4424528
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/serpentunder_t/pseuds/serpentunder_t
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Charlie is hiding in a cupboard, trying desperately to avoid the expectations that come from being Willoughby's local hero.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Someone to Lead an Army With

**Author's Note:**

> As ever, un-beta'd so please forgive any mistakes!  
> This was for the prompt, 'person A just opened a cupboard to find person B squished inside saying “Shh I’m hiding” '  
> Enjoy!

Bass steadied himself, ready for Rachel to meet him at the door of the Porter house. She swung it open, smiling. Until she looked and Bass watched as her mouth pursed into a thin line as she just nodded at him. Bass side stepped her into the waiting party.

It was Gene’s birthday and half the town had turned up to honor their only doctor. Bass looked around, desperately searching for someone who didn’t want to kill him. Miles had his arm around Rachel’s shoulder as they talked to some local yahoos, so he tapped him on the shoulder. “Hey man, where’s Charlie?”

Miles barely looked at him as he replied, “Dunno, I haven’t seen her. She’s around here somewhere though.”

Bass sighed and began the slow rounds through the main floor, looking for his partner. He’d gotten used to the death glares he got from the people in town, but the way they suddenly whispered as he passed still struck a nerve. He was becoming desperate, it wasn’t like Charlie to just up and vanish from something for her grandfather. He even checked the main floor bedroom, in case she’d found a local boy to occupy her evening, but was only greeted by a few of Blanchard’s men, discussing policies. He high tailed it out of there before they’d had the chance to drag him into the conversation. Standing out on the back porch, he lit up a hand rolled cigarette and surveyed the backyard.

Once his cigarette was all but ash, he flicked it into the flower beds and headed back in, making a beeline for the booze. Ignoring the wine bottles on the counter, he walked into the pantry, heading for the hard stuff. Opening the small door to the cabinet he nearly choked in surprise.

A curled up Charlie greeted him with wide eyes, softening once she realized who had found her. She raised a finger to her lips, “Shhh, I’m hiding.”

It was all Bass could do not to burst out laughing at the insane sight before him. Charlie had somehow managed to squeeze her petite frame into the cabinet, pushing the bottles of booze to accommodate her, while holding an opened bottle of the whiskey Bass had been looking for a moment ago. Chuckling quietly, Bass crouched before the cabinet, and grabbed the bottle from her hand before she could stop him.

“Hey!” Charlie let out a squawk, trying desperately to grab back the bottle. “That’s mine you ass! Find your own!” But she couldn’t reach where Bass was holding it without leaving her sanctuary.

“Come and get it.” His voice was low, a challenge. And he watched as her eyes flitted back and forth before him and the bottle, deciding.

With a huff, Charlie began to uncurl herself, knocking over some bottles in the process. “You have to help me.” She spoke quietly, still trying not to draw attention to her hiding spot.

Bass gave her his free hand to help her lumber out of the confined space as she let out a low grunt. Once out, she arched her back. Bass heard the cracking as Charlie moaned, his eyes going to her lips, slightly opened as her eyes rolled back. “You have to hide me.”

“From what?” Bass was enjoying every second of this. Everyone in town loved Charlotte Matheson, viewing her as their own personal locally grown hero, despite the fact that she wasn’t actually even from Texas.

“From them.” Charlie shuddered for emphasis. “They keep trying to set me up.”

“I thought you liked sampling the local goods?” Bass couldn’t keep the wicked grin off his face as Charlie, still holding onto his hand, began to drag him towards the back porch.

“I did, I do, but I’ve sampled all the goods worth anything, and let me tell you, they ain’t worth much.” Charlie burst through the back door as if she’d never experienced fresh air in her life and finally Bass let himself laugh at the ridiculousness of the situation.

“How’re you supposed to be the Willoughby poster child if you don’t settle down with a local?” Bass was digging in his pocket for his case of cigarettes as he spoke. When he looked up, Charlie’s face had paled.

“No.”

“No what?”

“Just no. No. Hell nope. Nope.” Charlie was shaking her head like she had water in her ears as Bass laughed through his first inhales. Before he could speak again, she’d reached out with the reflexes of a cat and snatched the cigarette from between his fingers.

He watched, mesmerized, as she brought it to her lips for a deep inhale. Bass had seen her smoke before, but it the way her lips caressed her cigarettes never got old.

“I don’t ever want to settle down. Bass, if I start talking about settling down, shoot me.” She’d turned to the horizon, barely talking above a whisper.

“You don’t know that, things change.”

“I don’t want to get stuck somewhere.” The rawness of her voice told him just how scared she was of the life that was expected of her. She was a fighter, he knew it, Miles knew it, but it seemed like everyone else around her expected her to just forget it now that the war was over.

“Settling down and getting stuck aren’t necessarily the same thing.” He tried to keep his voice light, avoiding the feeling in the pit of his stomach.

“Aren’t they? You fall in love, get married, have kids, and then what? You just live until you get old and die?” Her tone was steely, like she’d said it before.

“No.” She looked at him, and Bass watched the way her hair moved slightly in the wind. “You could fall in love and travel the world, or get married and lead an army together,” his words were coming out quickly as he motioned his hands in the air, trying, and failing, to keep it lighthearted.

Charlie suddenly smiled, “Like you and Miles?” Her sing song laugh was like honey to him, smooth and sweet, and if he let himself he was quite sure he could drown in it.

“Yup, except with better perks.” He was chuckling now too, all the awkwardness of a minute ago gone.

“Bow chicka wow wow!” Charlie exclaimed.

“Where the hell did you hear that?” He was always taken aback when a pre-blackout phrase passed her lips.

“One of Duncan’s men said something like that when I’d come back from...” She trailed off. He knew what she’d come back from. Connor.

Hanging his head he let out a low huff, trying to keep from giving away his internal thoughts regarding the matter.

“What about you?” She asked, turning her attention back on his lean frame.

“What about me?”

“Do you think you’ll ever get married again? To someone other than Miles I mean.” She punched him lightly on the shoulder, and he reached up to rub the sport for effect.

“Dunno, maybe. If the right woman would have me.”

“Lots of women would have you.”

“Yeah, but I wouldn’t lead an army with any of them.” He laughed, watching the smile spread across her face.

 

They were interrupted when the back screen door banged open, Charlie quickly flinging her half-finished cigarette into the same flower bed Bass had thrown his. “There you two are! What’re you two doing out here?” Rachel’s stern voice was matched with an equal stare at the pair of them. “It’s time for cake, come one.” She herded them back into the lion’s den as Charlie rolled her eyes at Bass.


End file.
